It was Paolo Maldini who nicknamed him 'Canna'. A cane, a reed that bends but will not break. This capacity to resist, however treacherous the tides, has been the Italian captain's hallmark during this World Cup.

Fabio Cannavaro's captaincy was on the line before a ball had been intercepted. A few careless remarks during the maelstrom of the scandal swirling around Juventus, his club back home, prompted a debate about his suitability to lead Italy into this tournament Canna, as usual, resisted. He did not even bend, never mind come close to breaking.

The diatribes are long forgotten now. Cannavaro has been the most accomplished defender at this World Cup. He has been the only permanent member of Italy's ever-changing back line. He has been imperious. Rigorous. Absolutely in charge. Standing tall at 5ft 9in, he is dwarfed by just about every other centre-half in Germany, yet he has risen serenely above them all, seemingly without a bead of sweat.

Now he is 90 minutes away from an extraordinary footballing achievement. If he can lead his team through their semi-final against Germany, he will stride into the World Cup final on the occasion of his 100th cap. Cannavaro will become the third Italian to reach that milestone, following the example of two former captains of distinction, Dino Zoff and Paolo Maldini. The idea of it is enough to make him blush, as he did when he first represented Italy nearly a decade ago.

He is a typical Neapolitan. The combination of bright blue eyes and dark hair is a giveaway. Spiritually, he is the classic combination of smart, impassioned, proud and a family man. His wife is not the usual Wag model favoured by modern footballers, but a more ordinary, homely, Italian-mamma style. Fans love him even more for that. Good old Canna. Rock-solid guy. 'If there is a model footballer who is loyal, correct and good, that's Cannavaro,' says Italy coach Marcello Lippi.

As a youngster, he observed and learnt from, and eventually succeeded, Ciro Ferrara, a monument at the back of his boyhood club, Napoli (Ferrara is now Lippi's assistant with the Azzurri). Cesare Maldini rewarded the young Cannavaro with a call-up to the under-21s and people who watched those early performances walked away thinking that here is the man who will be the number-one defender in Italy. Their instincts were not wrong.

He was soon on his way from Napoli to Parma, where he developed a career-strong rapport with the goalkeeper, Gianluigi Buffon. The quest for the honours he craved was barely sated in seven years with Parma, though, so he moved to one of the superpowers in 2002. But Internazionale's sad trophy cabinet struggles to retain the interest of prize-hungry players for long, so when Juventus began sniffing around, Cannavaro did not need much persuading to encourage a transfer. The Gazzetta dello Sport reported that he took a wage cut of €1m (about £690,000) a year, so keen was he to become a winner.

Cannavaro has won two Scudetti with Juventus. 'I have gone from being considered a player whose career was finished to a player of steel,' he says. 'Juve have allowed me to show my worth, it has provided me with a challenge that has motivated me.' The legitimacy of those Scudetti is one of the factors that will be decided by the Moggipoli corruption investigation and there is every chance Juventus will be stripped of them around the time of the World Cup final a week today.

Would Cannavaro be among those players who will seek to move on if Juve are further punished by relegation? More likely he would be among the last to jump ship. But there would be no shortage of interested parties in the 32-year-old. His performances have been defensively flawless.

He is a phenomenon. This vertically challenged defender can jump as high as striker Luca Toni, who is a shade over 6ft 4in. What Cannavaro lacks in height, he makes up for in anticipation, positioning, concentration and an explosive leap.

His philosophy? 'I've always been strong physically and I think for a player what happens off the field is even more important,' he says. 'I don't drink or smoke. I eat well, get plenty of sleep and, when the mood takes, sex is good, too.'

His leadership qualities have helped to steady a squad assailed by off-the-pitch turmoil. Although he was caught out speaking out of turn when he expressed support for Luciano Moggi, the wheeler-dealer at the heart of the scandal, he was quick to defend himself and squash the issue before it got out of hand.

'What bothered me the most in these last few weeks was being misinterpreted at that press conference,' he says. 'I never defended Moggi. I said that whoever had made a mistake should pay for it. To a question about him I said he did his job as general manager well. He always behaved in the right way with the team. If I said the opposite I would have been a hypocrite.'

In the build-up to the World Cup, Cannavaro's house was searched by tax police as part of the investigations and he had to return home to answer some questions for the magistrates. But as Italy's World Cup mission began to unfold, the nature of their off-field distractions changed dramatically when former team-mate Gianluca Pessotto was found outside Juventus's offices having fallen from a top-floor window. The Italian tricolore decorated with the message 'Pessottino we are with you', hoisted at the end of the quarter-final in Hamburg, was Cannavaro's idea.

Focus and solidity have provided a vital platform for Italy, especially considering they have not been the most prolific team until Toni finally got the measure of World Cup football, enabling the Azzurri to dispatch Ukraine with an air of conviction in Friday night's quarter-final.

By then, Cannavaro was on his third partner at the heart of the back line, but there is encouraging news about Alessandro Nesta's injury and the Milan stopper hopes to recover fully in time for the semi-final on Tuesday. Cannavaro and Nesta have a well developed understanding. Together they intercept, disturb, pick pockets. They understand each other's moves. The newly enthusiastic Germans have not yet faced a hurdle as obdurate.

Cannavaro is determined to banish international disappointments that include premature exits from the 2002 World Cup and 2004 European Championship. 'For many of us this will be the last opportunity to do well in a World Cup,' he says. 'We've come this far and believe in our abilities, so we can dream of reaching the final. Now that Nesta and [Marco] Materazzi will return to the fold, we'll be stronger than ever.'

Earlier in the competition, when Italy stumbled during the group phase, a German newspaper made a joke about emotional reactions to the team's progress back in Italy by depicting the famous image of a tooting car whizzing through the streets with a flag flying out of the window - a white flag.